**ASLA Press Releases**

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 19, 2000

Contacts:
Susan Cahill,
202- 216-2320

Diane Scheu,
202-216-2358

ASLA AWARDS PRESTIGIOUS MEDALS AND HONORARY MEMBERSHIP
Landscape Architects, Senator and Governor Receive Society's Highest Honors

(Washington, D.C.) - The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has announced the recipients of its prestigious 2000 ASLA, Olmsted and LaGasse Medals and its annual honorary membership to: Carl D. Johnson, FASLA; Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening; Jack Dangermond, ASLA, and Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA); and Randall J. Biallas, respectively. These honors will be presented at the Society's annual meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 28-31, 2000.

Johnson receives the ASLA Medal, the Society's highest award, for significantly improving the quality of life through superior design and other contributions to the profession of landscape architecture. This medal is awarded each year to a nationally significant landscape architect in recognition of a lifetime of accomplishments. Johnson's career spans 48 years, with nearly 30 years as a founding principal of Johnson, Johnson and Roy, Inc. He has exhibited a consistent and creative search for exemplary solutions to client needs--locally, nationally and internationally. He has consistently supported ASLA at the chapter and national level, serving on the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Board of Trustees at its inception. Johnson was also largely responsible for the establishment of the JJR Research Grant to fund research that advances the Society's body of knowledge on issues of sustainability.

Gov. Glendening receives the Olmsted Medal, which recognizes non-landscape architects, for his outstanding contributions to the environment through action and policy. His great passion for protecting, preserving, and restoring our environment for future generations to enjoy has to led to 1997 Maryland's Smart Growth-Anti Sprawl initiative.

The goals of the Smart Growth initiative are to: (1) save our most valuable remaining natural resources before they are lost forever; (2) support existing communities and neighborhoods by targeting state resources to support development in areas where the infrastructure is already in place or planned to support it; and (3) save taxpayers millions of dollars in the unnecessary cost of building the infrastructure required to support sprawl. This landmark legislation allows the state to direct its programs and funding to support locally designated growth areas and protect rural areas. Since 1998, 32,000 acres have already been slated for preservation.

There are two winners of the LaGasse Medal because it is presented to a landscape architect and a non-landscape architect. Recipients are those who through professional practice or utilization of landscape architecture have made notable contributions to the management of natural resources, management of public lands or management of other lands in the public interest.

Dangermond, this year's landscape architect LaGasse Medal recipient, is the president of ESRI, developer of the most powerful, popular and user-friendly computer tool for landscape architects. His GIS and ARC VIEW System has become the tool of the future for landscape architects as it allows spatial information to be accessed from a huge spatial data base via PC computers. Dangermond has also contributed to the body of landscape architecture knowledge by making available abstracts from ESRI's Annual Conference education sessions over the past decade. His enormous contributions to ASLA include donating last year's single largest gift to members, in the form of $1.2 million in software. He continues to be a strong voice for a clear vision of the profession's future - speaking to how landscape architects can both contribute to and benefit from contextual shifts that are changing our society.

Sen. Landrieu, this year's non-landscape architect LaGasse Medal winner, is the first woman from Louisiana elected to a full term in the United States Senate. As a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Landrieu is leading a bipartisan charge to redirect a portion of federal offshore oil and gas drilling revenues to all states for conservation and environmental initiatives.

The Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA) would represent the largest investment in the environment in decades. Under this bill, a share of these revenues would be redirected to states to preserve coastlines and wetlands, as well as to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, wildlife conservation efforts, urban parks and forestry initiatives and historic preservation.

Biallas receives this year's ASLA Honorary Membership, which is extended to non-landscape architects who have performed exemplary service to ASLA, made significant contributions to the profession, or contributed to the environment through action, policy, or education. As a program manager of the National Park Service Historic structures and Cultural Landscapes Program, Biallas provides leadership in protecting historic structures and cultural landscapes within the national park system. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the first historic landscape architect position in the National Park Service.

The American Society of Landscape Architects, founded in 1899, represents more than 13,000 members nationwide. Landscape architecture is a comprehensive discipline of land analysis, planning, design, management, preservation and rehabilitation. Typical projects include site design and planning, town and urban planning, regional planning, preparation of environmental impact plans, garden design, historic preservation, and parks/recreation design and planning. Landscape architects hold undergraduate or graduate degrees. They are licensed to practice in 46 states and are required to pass a rigorous national three-day examination. For more information, visit our web site at www.asla.org.